Also known as a general power of attorney, this legal document allows your nominated attorney to sign legal documents on your behalf. You can nominate whether your attorney can act for anything in general or for a specific purpose. It can be for a defined period and can be revoked anytime. This is an ideal legal document for when you are overseas or not available but know you have legal matters to attend to when you are not around.
Currently you can make an enduring power of attorney for financial and personal matters. An enduring power of attorney is different to a general power of attorney because it continues to be effective even after you lose mental capacity. In other words, this document allows your attorney to continue making decisions for you when you are no longer of sound mind to make decisions for yourself.
For medical matters, you can appoint a medical decision maker to make decisions for you in relation to medical treatment when you are unable to make them yourself.
